The settlement was field last week in Chatham County State Court in Savannah, the Los Angeles Times reports. Terms were not disclosed.
Camera assistant Sarah Jones, 27, was struck and killed by a train in February 2014 while a film crew trespassed to film a scene for the movie “Midnight Rider” on active railroad tracks. In July 2017, a Georgia jury found the railroad partially responsible for Jones’ death because other trains passing through the area had not informed CSX dispatchers of the film crew’s presence. [See “CSX ordered to pay $3.9 million to family of film worker killed in 2014,” Trains News Wire, July 29, 2017.] The jury awarded a total of $11.2 million, and CSX was held to be liable for 35 percent of the damages.
CSX disputed its responsibility and appealed the verdict, leading to negotiations that resulted in the settlement, the Times reports.
Eight other crew members were injured. The film’s director, Randall Miller, eventually served a jail term after pleading guilty to charges including involuntary manslaughter. The film was never completed.
